Both belong to the hypercar genre and play in the 1,000-hp league, but have entirely different powertrains.

Introduced in 2005 and retired last year, the Bugatti Veyron will go down in history as one of the most important cars powered by a combustion engine. The hypercar produced at Molsheim in France took the automotive world by storm back then with its W16 8.0-liter engine packing four turbochargers to give it an immense output of 1,001 horsepower (736 kilowatts). Bugatti upped the power ante by 50 percent with the new 1,500-hp Chiron, but that doesn’t make its predecessor any less impressive and still a performance benchmark.

But as we are about to enter the electric era, a new breed of hypercars is upon us and the Rimac Concept One from Croatia might just be a sign of things to come. With 1,088 of electrified ponies, it’s even more powerful than the regular Veyron and has considerably more torque (1,600 Nm / 1,180 lb-ft vs 1,250 Nm / 922 lb-ft). That mountain-moving torque kicks in right away thanks to the four electric motors whereas the Veyron’s W16 unleashes its full torque from 2,200 rpm.

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That being said, numbers don’t tell the whole story, especially when dealing with two very different types of propulsion. Mate Rimac, CEO and founder of Rimac Automobili, was curious to find out how his all-electric machine fares against the mighty sixteen-cylinder beast. He got in touch Earl of Pembroke, founder of Wilton Classic & Supercar who so happens to own a Veyron, to take the two very different hypercars on the roads of Croatia and swap seats to find out how it feels behind the wheel of the other car.

The relatively unknown electric car has already been pitted against big names such as the LaFerrari and Porsche 918 Spyder. All we need right now is for the Concept One to duel the Chiron. We also wouldn’t mind seeing it battle the Koenigsegg One:1.